No—it wasn't Sophia. Not really. Sophia was dead. This was...

"You're a ghost?" I gasped, salty tears and mucus seeping into the corners of my lips.

Sophia chuckled. She certainly didn't look like a traditional ghost. She wore a signature pair of black jeans, a navy-blue cropped tank-top, and white converse high-tops. She looked like she was preparing to watch an episode of the Bachelorette with Dylan, and yet...

I narrowed my eyes and noticed the slightest waver within Sophia's form. She wasn't a solid human. If I looked closely enough, I saw the outline of a tree behind her abdomen. Nonetheless, she shrugged, "I s'pose I am."

"How?" I whispered, wiping furiously at my tear-filled eyes as if that might make Sophia disappear. Perhaps this was just sleep deprivation. Perhaps it was a cruel joke that my mind was playing on me. She didn't disappear.

"I died. You died," she said, gesturing between us. "There are bound to be consequences to coming back to life. Didn't Sarah warn you that this might happen?"

I blinked, scrambling from my knees back to my feet so that I could draw nearer to my dead friend. "N-no, she didn't. She—Wait, Sarah? You've seen Sarah? And Lyra?"

Sophia grinned, and the expression was happy—peaceful, even. "Finally got to meet my niece." Pride glowed in her blue eyes, and my mouth opened in disbelief. "Sarah told me that she found you in the afterlife and guided you back to the talisman. I would've come to guide you as well, but I'd just been killed, and, well, death is disorienting."

"Right," I agreed, breathless. How could Sophia joke? How could she be so nonchalant? She'd died. She had been murdered, because of me.

As if she could hear my thoughts, Nolan's little sister shook her head. "Don't blame yourself for what happened. I speak for every soul that died on that battlefield when I say that we do not blame you."

My gaze swept across the other headstones. "C-can I see them, as well?"

No matter how hard I searched, no other figure formed. Only Sophia stood in front of me. "I suppose, if you summoned them in the same way that you summoned me."

"I didn't summon you," I replied, shaking my head. This was too much to take in.

"Not on purpose," Sophia emphasized, picking at a hangnail on her thumb. "But you were thinking about me pretty damn hard. I decided to drop in and pay a visit."

It was astonishing, really. Sophia was here. She had come back, at least partially. I gasped, "Nolan! I have to go find Nolan! And Dominic, he's here, too! They'll want to see you and—"

"No, Charlie," Sophia shook her head. "You're the only one that can see us. You died, and you remained in the afterlife for a long time. The veil between worlds has thinned for you, offering you a foothold."

Her words settled over me. This was a consequence of staying in the afterlife for too long. This was the price that I paid. What would have happened if I'd stayed even a moment longer? Would I be able to see every spirit as it passed through worlds, without summoning them? I shook my head. It was too much to comprehend.

I wiped the wetness beneath my nose. "Sophia, I am s-so sorry," I whispered, my voice cracking as I fought back tears.

She smiled again, and I thought that physical warmth might have radiated from her expression. "Charlie, don't feel sorry for me. For any of us," Sophia said, reaching out a hand to brush against my cheek. If she touched me, I couldn't feel anything, but the gesture was comforting, nonetheless. "Don't you know that we are in a better place?"

My lips trembled, the corners pulling down as I wept. I reached up to hold her hand against my cheek, but my fingers slid right through her hand. I nodded. She was in a happier place. I knew, firsthand, the peacefulness of the afterlife. If it hadn't been for Nolan, I would have wanted to stay there.

We stayed like that for several long moments. Sophia's translucent hand cuffing my cheek while I cradled my head, imagining that I could feel her touch. Finally, I sniffled and lowered my hand. "Sophia, we need to find a way to stop the hybrids. We don't have much time."

"Right." She nodded; her pale blue eyes were more intense now. "I'll ask around the afterlife. See if I can't find something of use. In a day or two, I'll come back and let you know what I found out."

"D-don't I need to summon you?" I asked, still unsure of how the mechanics of speaking with ghosts worked.

She pursed her lips, considering this. "I think we share a strong enough connection, especially now that we have spoken once, that I can appear to you when I want. If not, you can try coming to my grave again, thinking about me—it worked this time."

"Sarah mentioned that you can see glimpses of our lives when we experience strong emotions—but you can simply come to me?" I wondered, recollecting my conversation with Sarah. She'd said that she could only see visions of Nolan and Dominic when they were experiencing extreme happiness or sadness.

"Again," Sophia winked, "You died, Charlies. You're a special exception."

I nodded but worry seized me as she began to back away. She was leaving. I lurched forward, reaching out for a hand that I couldn't possibly grab. My fingers slipped right through her forearm, but Sophia turned back to me anyway. "That feels funny," she commented with a grin, eyes flickering down to where my hand had just passed through her arm.

"Er, sorry," I apologized, eyes widening. "But, Sophia, why don't you just stay? S-stay where I can see you?"

A sad, sympathetic smile fell on her lips. "My place isn't here, Charlie. I'd rather be on the other side." As much as her words hurt, I understood. She didn't belong in the world of the living anymore. She could visit, but she didn't want to.

This time, when she turned to walk away, I didn't reach out to grab her. No matter how much I wanted to. Her body slowly became more translucent with every step she took away from me, but before she disappeared completely, she turned back with a grin. "Oh! I almost forgot! Congratulations on the Mating Ceremony. I'll be watching, but you won't be able to see me. And will you tell my brothers that I love...?"

Her body faded from view before she could finish, but I knew what she wanted. "Of course!" I called out, but she was gone, and my words echoed in the darkness.

Again, I was alone. The sky had turned purple, now, leaving me alone with the countless headstones. As if Sophia had never been here. As if it had all been some wicked conjuring of my mind. But I knew the truth. Sophia had been here. And she would be back. She would be back. I repeated that phrase to myself, again and again, when another voice reached out to me in the darkness.

"Charlie?"

I spun around, half-expecting another ghost to appear behind me. But this was a voice of the living—a voice that struck simultaneous fear and excitement in my heart. Dominic strode down the little path that led to the gravesite. "Charlotte, are you okay? Who are you talking to?"

My stomach twisted at the sight of him. He wore jeans and a white undershirt, and his skin was pale, like he hadn't received any sun in his human-form in days. He'd been gathering rogues, after all, and that was undoubtedly safer to do in his wolf form. Otherwise, he looked well. According to Nolan, he'd been uninjured in the battle, despite ending the lives of dozens of hybrids.

"I'm fine," I choked out, finally. I hastily wiped the wetness from my cheeks and the dirt from my white nightgown. Realizing the state of my appearance, I wrapped my arms across my chest, hyper-aware that the chill of the evening air had caused the peaks of my breasts to harden. "I-is everything okay?"

"Yeah, we just finished our meeting and Nolan noticed you were missing. We started searching immediately," he answered, eyes scanning the graveyard. His brows furrowed. "Were you alone? I thought I heard you speaking."

"I—" I hesitated, struggling to conjure some lie. But this wasn't a secret I wanted to keep. I took a deep breath and told the truth. "I was talking to Sophia."

Dominic's eyes softened, and unsurmountable sorrow filled his gaze. He nodded. "I've visited and spoken to her, too, a few times..."

"No," I immediately interjected, my voice a bit harsher than I'd intended. "No, you don't understand. I saw her. I spoke to her, and she spoke back to me. I saw her, Dominic." His eyes narrowed, and I knew that he didn't believe me.

"I don't think so, Charlie. You haven't been sleeping very well," Dominic explained. So Nolan had told him that I wasn't sleeping or eating? I didn't realize it had been so obvious... Then again, dark circles tainted my eyes every time I looked in the mirror since coming back. "Maybe you just need to sleep?"

I ground my teeth together. "I know what I saw, Dominic," I growled, hardly recognizing the ferocity behind my own words. "I died. I died, and I spent too much time on the other side. And I came back wrong. I can see dead people—ghosts. Okay?"

I came back wrong. The truth of my own words echoed in my mind. A part of me, even just a sliver of my soul, remained in the afterlife. I had a foothold in the world of the dead because I had died. And no one could return to complete normalcy after that.

Dominic was quiet, his piercing blue eyes searched mine, undoubtedly gauging my sanity. Finally, he released a long, ragged breath and pressed his lips together in a thin line. For a moment, I thought he might cry. "You saw Sophia? You spoke to her?"

"Yes," I sighed, relieved that he seemed to believe me. I wrapped my arms around my chest tighter. "She said she loves you..." My thoughts immediately flickered to Sarah and all that she had told me when I'd died.

Sarah was Dominic's true mate, ripped from him by the cruelest spell of that tainted the fabric of fate itself. I had to tell him the truth. I took a deep breath, summoned my courage and began, "Dominic, I saw—"

My words were cut off by Nolan, who called my name from the dimly lit path that led to the new cemetery. "Charlotte?" His voice was lined with worry as he descended the path and rushed to take me up in his arms. "You're okay?" He whispered in my ear.

I nodded, unable to help from wrapping my arms around his neck as well. I hadn't meant to worry him, but he clutched me against his chest for dear life, and I knew that he'd panicked. I was not the only one permanently scarred from my passing.

"Charlotte saw Sophia." Dominic's voice resounded through the clearing, suddenly cool and serious.

Nolan pulled back immediately, and, in the light of the dying sun, I saw confusion written plainly across his angular features.

Before he could even ask, I nodded. "Yes, I saw her. And she's going to help us find a way to stop the hybrids."